Saturday, July 8, 2017

Can't be money, can't be faith, can't be wanting to be the best, cant be racial dominance, leaving 'what' for the constant whine of snowflakes landing on concrete and getting hurty.

Brownlie, Nicholls, Clarke, Meads, Going, more recent Whitelock, Savea, and to create an almost impossibly high bar, tonight Three Barrett brothers will line up in an International for New Zealand in a rugby test.

There were others Brooke, Deans, Bachop, Franks, and yet other father and son familial links among the now nearly 1200 all blacks, but my post here is about brothers reaching the ultimate in aspiration for many a New Zealand family.

What might a demographer discover as common links in these sibling success rates that emerge from many thousands of brothers who in all likelihood aspire in their back yards, farm paddocks, streets or parks, to be All Blacks.

Some parents, sadly possibly not enough, set out to provide the very best for their kids, often at some diminishing of what they may well wish for themselves.

The welfare state sends many negative signals to family even to a point of of what some see as destruction of any support for a stable enduring two parent family.
Negatives that in turn see drugs and alcohol abuse, casual attitudes to work ethic, lower if not absence of personal pride, and a dependence and accompanying blaming of societal mores for their entrapment.
Occasionally a very talented and fortunate product of a modern welfare family emerges as a "star", often through Boxing, Martial arts, Team sports including footy, ball through a hoop and athletics but that only happens because an outside 'agent' intervenes.

Faith, family values, community commitment and a strong desire to do everything to encourage children to do well will be strongly evident among all those families listed above.

Contrast to the pimping recently of a woman with ten children who is disadvantaged because she refuses to name fathers on birth certificates that results in financial penalty under welfare rules, and do we perhaps see a possibility for welfare being a suspect in alleged Poverty.

To Robin and Kevin, proud parents involved in a bit of New Zealand Rugby History, enjoy your night.

3 comments:

Well, yes it did. Much of the enjoyment I took from the equal strength of the teams was from the performance of the Barrett brothers. Jordie's knocking the ball, that was going into touch, back into play that resulted in the first try was one of the cleverest examples of a thinking player that I have seen. His scoring of the second try was a classy finish to the movement. Beauden's all round play was excellent also.Just a shame the third brother did not get a run.

Referee the winner closely followed by the Red Army who took a draw as a win, neither of whom will see it as any sort of victory when the pottage has settled into a glutinous messs in the current inclement weather.The loser; Rugby the game as many dream about; passing, running, scoring tries in a high skill set display as most SH Referees see as their role to encourage.Flopping, hands in ruck to slow down, offside erroneously described as "quick line speed", intimidation of referee decisions, leading to a first ever in my experience of Players getting a decision change over the firm support to immediate real time instinct by a referee, from a TMO.

All in all a massive step backwards for Webb Ellis's initial idea that there could be a better game than just kicking the pigskin into the mud.

Agree, shame that Lloyd didnt get on the paddock.Also sad that modern rugby has forced Barrett other son Kane to give it away with concussion issues'.Will Lloyd be the solution to Jerome Kaino's age related future?